Give Your Old iOS Device New Life With Bl4ck0ut!

— February 3, 2013

We all have, or know someone who has, an old iOS device. Maybe you’re like me and you have the first generation iPod touch. Maybe you’ve just kept all of your iPhones after upgrading. Whatever the case, there’s a great new project to breathe a little life in to that seemingly dead device.

The problem with Apple and these iDevices is that they stop getting updates after a while. When Apple updates their app SDK, they remove old ones. When Devs update an app, it kills off compatibility with the older SDK. Eventually these devices that weren’t updated to the latest iOS version can’t download new apps…or update apps. They are effectively dead in the water.

The Bl4ck0ut project aims at bringing some of the new features to older devices, or even newer ones. It is a custom firmware based on the official Apple IPSW files that adds features, speed, and compatibility. The firmware builds on existing Jailbreak technology by optimizing code and porting new features over.

Keep in mind this doesn’t actually upgrade you to the new versions of iOS though. You still won’t be able to download newer apps from the app store or anything like that. You will, however, have access to Cydia and might be able to get some apps that way.

There are custom firmwares for every version of iOS, dating back to the iPod Touch 1G and iOS 3.1.3. It’s not perfect, but it’s a whole lot better than the alternative. Instead of letting that old sad device sit tucked away in a drawer, give it a Bl4ck0ut firmware and see what it can do. I plan on updating my iPod soon and will report back with details.

Have you done this? Is it worth doing? Leave us a comment, or Tweet us @MyPhoneDaily, or like and comment on Facebook, or circle and comment on Google+

We all have, or know someone who has, an old iOS device. Maybe you’re like me and you have the first generation iPod touch. Maybe you’ve just kept all of your iPhones after upgrading. Whatever the case, there’s a great new project to breathe a little life in to that seemingly dead device.

The problem with Apple and these iDevices is that they stop getting updates after a while. When Apple updates their app SDK, they remove old ones. When Devs update an app, it kills off compatibility with the older SDK. Eventually these devices that weren’t updated to the latest iOS version can’t download new apps…or update apps. They are effectively dead in the water.

The Bl4ck0ut project aims at bringing some of the new features to older devices, or even newer ones. It is a custom firmware based on the official Apple IPSW files that adds features, speed, and compatibility. The firmware builds on existing Jailbreak technology by optimizing code and porting new features over.

Keep in mind this doesn’t actually upgrade you to the new versions of iOS though. You still won’t be able to download newer apps from the app store or anything like that. You will, however, have access to Cydia and might be able to get some apps that way.

There are custom firmwares for every version of iOS, dating back to the iPod Touch 1G and iOS 3.1.3. It’s not perfect, but it’s a whole lot better than the alternative. Instead of letting that old sad device sit tucked away in a drawer, give it a Bl4ck0ut firmware and see what it can do. I plan on updating my iPod soon and will report back with details.

Have you done this? Is it worth doing? Leave us a comment, or Tweet us @MyPhoneDaily, or like and comment on Facebook, or circle and comment on Google+